11 Fun HR Project Ideas

Here is our list of the best human resource project ideas.

Human resource project ideas are a series of innovative, inspiring, and motivating activities that organizations use to motivate and retain employees. Examples include employee socials, workplace celebrations, and mentorship programs. The purpose of these activities is to reduce employee stress and raise employee engagement.

These projects can boost HR skills. The purpose of these projects is to improve company culture, employee retention, employee engagement strategies, and workplace positivity.

This list includes:

• creative HR project ideas
• HR project ideas for work
• fun HR initiatives for work
• HR topics for research projects

Let’s get started!

List of fun HR project ideas

From workplace celebrations to group trips to mentorships, here is our list of fun ideas for HR projects.

1. Mentorship Programs

Mentorships are one of the best HR project ideas for work because they allow staff members to learn from industry professionals. Mentorship programs aim to ensure employees’ personal and professional growth within an organization. You can organize mentorships by pairing or assigning employees to experienced professionals in their field, within or outside the workplace.

To organize mentorships:

1. Provide guidelines and suggested structure for meetings and conversations.
2. Pair developing employees with seasoned professionals.
3. Set up dates for employees and mentors to meet and make an introduction.
4. Check in periodically to ensure all parties benefit from the partnerships.

Employees can ask the mentors pressing questions they may have about their jobs or career plans.

To make this event fun, mentors can assign tasks or team projects for employees and have follow-up sessions to evaluate the teammates. In addition, mentorships allow employees to ask pressing questions about their field and motivate staff members to offer their best efforts at work.

Check out this list of mentorship program ideas and tips.

2. Monthly Team Outings

Employees should get the chance to have fun as much as they work. For this reason, monthly team outings make the best fun HR initiatives for work. You can organize these hangouts during weekends or weeknights when employees are free or organize during hours socials.

Examples include:

• office parties
• outdoor parties
• sports events
• karaoke
• team dinners
• escape rooms
• trivia nights
• murder mystery parties
• cooking or craft classes

Team outings give colleagues a chance to bond and build great work relationships. These gatherings also help foster team spirit and make the new work week cheerful and stress-free. After such gatherings, employees tend to become more creative and productive.

For inspiration, check out this list of company offsite ideas.

3. Workplace Celebrations

Workplace celebrations allow teams to appreciate milestones and collective achievements. Hence, workplace celebrations make the best HR project ideas for work. You can mark an employee’s birthday, the company’s anniversary, or the successful completion of a critical task in the company. Workplace celebrations spotlight company wins and individual staff achievements. For example, the company can celebrate an employee or member of staff for long years of contributions and service. These activities aim to show employees that they are valued and abbreviated for their efforts.

Ideas:

• keep track of important dates in  your employees’ lives
• celebrate little milestones that contribute to the company’s growth and development
• honor important dates in the company’s history
• recognize cultural and diversity holidays, especially non-mainstream occasions

Workplace celebrations are fun events involving snacks, drinks, music, and meals. These activities allow employees to loosen up, celebrate their achievements, and allow teammates to interact with each other. If individual celebrations take a toll on the company finances, celebrate in groups. For instance, you can celebrate all employees born in October on the last day of the month. The employees can even share slices of cake, snacks, and drinks to mark this event.

Here is a list of team celebration ideas.

4. Group Trips

Employees deserve an all-expense paid trip that allows them to relax, have fun and interact with their colleagues. You can organize these trips at least once a year for a few days or a week. Employees will need to spread their leave dates across the year’s calendar so that every team member can enjoy this experience.

To organize this activity:

• Choose a calm and beautiful location for the trip.
• Organize transportations.
• Make bookings for the number of employees eligible for this trip, including lodging and meals.
• Plan trip entertainment and activities.

You can also organize or plan team building activities and games for the trip. These activities ensure that the teammates have fun on their trip and stories to share when they return. Group trips are effective ways of maintaining the positivity and efficiency of an employee and promoting the company’s productivity.

Here is a list of employee travel incentive ideas.

5. Training, Workshops, and Conferences

Training, workshops, and conferences are great opportunities to build professional networks. These activities aim to teach employees practical and relevant skills. Events like these also expose teammates to creative and innovative ideas.

To organize these events:

• Choose an existing conference or set a theme for a new event.
• Send invites to other companies who offer similar services and share the same vision as your company.
• Set up workshops or tables for different groups with similar interests.
• Find professionals to lead sessions.
• Offer food, drinks, and wine.
• To make this event interactive, split attendees into groups for activities.

This event can even be a yearly affair organized by several companies. You can plan training, workshops, or conferences within or outside the company, depending on the size of the event. You may also invite guest speakers with knowledge of the selected theme of the event. These events allow employees to learn new skills that may benefit their jobs and help enhance their performance at work.

Check out this list of corporate workshop ideas.

6. Workspace Makeovers

Many businesses have begun to realize the importance of mental health at work. Therefore, the workplace setting is an important fact to consider in terms of employee well-being. Colors, patterns, and lighting all have the power to affect employees’ moods and productivity. Therefore, redecorating workspaces is one of the most creative HR project ideas.

To redecorate your workspace:

1. Think about how you can modernize your work environment in terms of style, lighting, and decor.
2. Rearrange workspaces and furniture to suit employee needs. For example, open-plan offices for socialization and collaboration or private spaces to accommodate deep work.
3. For the interior, you can also consider bright colors that may positively affect employees’ moods and productivity.
4. You can also set up potted plants around the office, use decorative lights and offer some board games for employees to play during their free time.
5. You can also hang frames or create graphic designs of popular quotes in artistic fonts on the walls to motivate employees.

Redecorating the workspace will make employees feel at home and more productive in such a vibrant setting. The company can also incorporate art and photo opportunities to make the office more welcoming and inspiring.

Similarly, here are tips for office moves.

7. Employee Wellness Programs

Employee wellness programs are health-centric benefits that companies can offer to staff. These benefits aim to improve employees’ physical, mental, emotional, and social health.

Wellness programs schemes cover a broad range of benefits, including:

• free healthy food during office hours
• flexible work hours
• stress management education
• awareness of health conditions
• fitness classes and perks
• telehealth benefits
• life skills workshops

These activities aim to create a work environment that benefits your employees’ well-being and educate employees on several important health topics. These actions also ensure that employees can work productively. Companies can implement well-being programs in the office during health awareness days like World Cancer Day. You can offer free health screening to your employees during health awareness activities. For example, companies can partner with eye clinics to provide free eye screening, especially for employees who consistently work behind the screen. Employees can then get prescription glasses at discounted rates if necessary.

Here is a list of employee wellness program ideas.

8. Employee Retention Campaigns

Employee retention campaigns are an example of excellent HR project topic ideas. This topic aims to address why employees quit and gather honest insights from employees in the company. Many companies struggle with getting and maintaining employees. The best way to solve this problem is to assess the factors that affect employee retention.

For this activity:

1. Organize an open meeting with staff members, encouraging them to be as honest as possible.
2. Ask employees why they may consider quitting your company and ways that the company can improve to retain their services.
3. If the employees do not feel comfortable answering these questions in the meeting, you can create a survey that employees can answer anonymously.

These questionnaires will gather honest employee feedback and give the HR department tools to improve employer-employee relations. The questionnaire can also feature diversity, equity, and inclusion questions. The survey could include questions regarding the work environment, current company rules, and work in general. You can also use people analytics and study exit interviews to pick up on patterns of employee departures.

Check out this list of employee engagement survey questions.

9. Sponsored Fitness Classes

Putting your employees’ health first proves that you care about their well-being. Sponsored fitness classes help promote employees’ physical and mental well-being. These sponsored fitness sessions also help keep employees’ consistent and dedicated to their fitness goals. You can host this activity inside the workplace or develop a bulk payment plan with a local gymnasium around the office. Employees are more likely to attend these fitness sessions if they know that their colleagues or teammates will be in attendance. These sessions will give the teammates time to interact and get to know each other outside the work environment.

To organize this activity;

1. Source affordable fitness items such as skipping ropes, mats, and dumbbells.
2. Find a professional fitness instructor to coach the employees.
3. Encourage each employee to participate in this activity.
4. Offer tea or a light breakfast after each sports session, giving the employees a chance to freshen up and relax once they get home.

You can make these fitness sessions fun by playing music over loudspeakers as the employees work out or by developing dance routines that the teammates can try together. Sponsored fitness sessions help HR teams reduce absenteeism and sick days within the company. These activities also help employees develop endurance which may be necessary to offer optimum performance in the work environment.

Here are lists of team workouts and online fitness classes.

10. Quitting Bonuses

Quitting Bonuses are a good example of creative HR project ideas. This activity is a strategic, creative, and innovative method organizations use to differentiate between vision-driven and cash-oriented employees. This exercise is also a means of determining which employees to retain or let go of.

Simply offer a bonus to any employee who feels they are not a good fit for the company and opts to leave. Employees invested in the organization will view ongoing employment as more valuable than upfront cash, and a one-time payout to ill-fitting employees will cost the organization less long-term.

You will need approval from higher management before implementing these programs. To gain leadership buy-in, come prepared with research on the combined costs and consequences of unhappy and underperforming employees and perhaps case studies of companies using this tactic effectively.

This exercise makes it easy for the HR department to filter through serious and unserious candidates. This activity is also one of the easiest ways to get only the best talent for the company.

Here are more employee incentive ideas.

11. Work-Free Days

Breaks are important for the optimal performance of employees within the work environment. Team members who do not take necessary breaks or rest will be prone to burnout, affecting creativity and reducing productivity. Therefore, companies need to set up work-free days outside public holidays. For example, after a busy season, or if the environment seems a little tense, you can declare a work-free day, giving the employees time to unwind and relax to be more productive at work.

Inculcating work-free days in the company calendar can also be a good means to give your employees a great work-life balance. This idea allows employees to stay with their families, meet up with chores, attend health check-ups, and rest.

Check out this guide to work-life balance.

Conclusion

Human Resource project ideas are activities that organizations put in place to train, motivate and ensure employee retention. These activities aim to improve employees’ mental, social, physical, and professional development.

These activities also seek to improve employer-employee relationships, which help foster good relationships within the work environment. These activities include parties, fitness sessions, and mentorships.